Facebook Introduces New Snapchat Rival, Called “Facebook Stories”

Facebook has officially rolled out Facebook Stories to the public. Much like Instagram Stories (and rivals Snapchat), Facebook users can add photos and videos to your Stories feed, and they will all disappear after a 24-hour period. There are also selfie filters and geofilters that can be applied.

To share a story, on your Facebook timeline, swipe to the right to activate the camera. Swiping to the left, you’ll be able to access your Direct Messages. Photos and videos shared in Facebook Stories feed won’t appear on your regular Facebook timeline, and users can reply to a person’s story via a direct message (a separate inbox from Facebook Messenger).

The feature is currently rolling out so those interested should go either to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and update their Facebook app. Once that’s done, fire up the app and you should see a top panel in the Facebook app that’s similar to Instagram Stories.

Facebook Stories was originally introduced in late January 2017 during a limited testing programme. During this time, it was only available to those who lived in Ireland.